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Joel Kontinen
New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences challenges the old Darwinian dogma about birds being the descendants of dinosaurs. The dino-to-bird link has evaded extinction although evidences against it have increased in the past few years. (Read more here, here, here and here.)
Recently, Sankar Chatterjee and R. Jack Templin analyzed how well the Microraptor gui, which was found in 2003, was able to glide, and published their findings in PNAS. Computer simulations indicated that it could not have been able to take to the air from the ground but it could probably have glided down from a tree.
Several studies conducted in the past few years challenge the view that birds are descended from dinosaurs, says John Ruben, a professor of zoology at Oregon State University, in a comment on the study in PNAS. ”There are just too many inconsistencies with the idea that birds had dinosaur ancestors, and this newest study adds to that”, he says. According to Ruben, ”the weight of the evidence is now suggesting that not only did birds not descend from dinosaurs, but that some species now believed to be dinosaurs may have descended from birds.”
Professor Ruben said that many small animals, for instance, velociraptors, which were thought to be dinosaurs, have been flightless birds.
In other words: dinosaurs were dinosaurs and birds are birds.
Sources:
Chatterjee, Sankar and R. Jack Templin. 2010. Biplane wing planform and flight performance of the feathered dinosaur Microraptor gui. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104:5, 1576-1580 (30 January 9 http://www.pnas.org/content/104/5/1576.abstract
Study challenges bird-from-dinosaur theory of evolution - was it the other way around? Physorg 9 February 2010 http://www.physorg.com/news184959295.html
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